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A Little Bit Of Teddy Bear History.
The Teddy Bear, got it’s name from Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. |
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On
the 14th November 1902, President Roosevelt was at Mississippi to
settle a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana. While there,
he attended a bear hunt, during the hunt he came across a wounded young
bear which had just killed a hunting dog, President Roosevelt ordered a
‘mercy killing’, to put the animal out of its misery. The Washington
Post ran an editorial cartoon created by the political cartoonist
Clifford K. Berryman which was called ‘Drawing The Line In Mississippi’.
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'Drawing The Line In Mississippi'
(Clifford K. Berryman) |
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President Theodore Roosevelt |
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At
first Berryman drew the bear as a fierce animal but due to its
popularity it was later re-drawn as a cuddly cub. The story also
changed slightly. The President failed to make a kill at the hunt so
his hosts caught and tethered a bear. This they presented to the
President as a sitting target. Naturally he refused and was
immortalised as saying, ’Spare the bear! I will not shoot a tethered
animal.’ |
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To
commemorate this story, Morris Michtom who owned a small novelty and
candy store in Brooklyn, New York placed in his window a toy bear his
wife Rose had made. This bear appeared for the first time, cub like,
sweet and innocent. Michtom sent a bear off to Roosevelt and asked his
permission if he could use the ‘teddy’ bear name. Roosevelt agreed and
the idea took off. Michtom and a company called Butler Brothers began
to mass produce them and within a year Michtom had started his own
company called the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company. |
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Roosevelt as a Rough Rider with a bear cub
(Clifford K. Berryman) |
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Strangely
enough, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Margarete Steiff a
disabled German seamstress, who worked with a soft toy factory in
Giengen had added a soft plush bear to the Steiff catalogue and sold
3,000 to American in 1903. Between
1903 and the first World War, Steiff had sold millions of bears, with
their trademark button in the left ear to America, Germany and Britian
as the teddy bear took over as the latest toy craze. |
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Somerset/Wiltshire Links
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Margarete Steiff |
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